- Joined
- Jul 22, 2021
- Messages
- 588
- Reaction score
- 854
Normally I just hook up the CO2 tanks to the kegs and leave them in the refrigerator for a couple weeks and they're carbonated up.
Sometimes I need something quicker than that and so I made this quick carbonation unit based off of the idea of the Blickman Engineering quick carb.
The Blickman unit cost ~$200 plus tax and shipping or get it at your local brew shop if they have it. This cost me a little under $105 to make; The Blickman would have certainly been easier to do as it's complete, but this was less expensive and I don't mind the hobby aspect of doing it myself.
The quick carbonation is simply a self priming pump that feeds into a stainless steel T that has Barbed fittings to accept hoses with clamps. One input of the stainless T has a .5 Micron Carbonation stone that feeds from your CO2 tank.
You run the pump, it sucks the liquid out of the keg through the T, across the Stone, and back into the keg. The CO2 tank is pushing through the .5 Micron stone which carbonates the liquid on the way back out to the keg.
It takes about 45 minutes to get the liquid mostly carbonated where you want it and another 15 minutes or so will have it pretty much about where you need it. You can really see the bubbles going back into the keg until it starts to equalize and then the two lines look the same. Depending on the carbonation level, my experience shows you need to let it sit for several hours afterwards to let the foam settle down.
In my first go-round, I had a pump that was a little too strong and it would push liquid into the line of the CO2 and to get around that you really had to crank up the CO2 to bypass the pressure caused by the pump. This caused leaks. My original pump was rated at 4 L a minute. I replaced it with a pump rated at 2L a minute and that fixed that issue.
My next issue was the stainless steel T came with hose barbs that were sized for half inch tubing. I wanted 3/8, so I needed to buy some separate 3/8 hose barb 1/2" NPT to go into the stainless T.
The next issue I had was that the smaller pump needed quarter inch lines connecting to it instead of 3/8". I could not find a pump that had outlets for 3/8. That led me to buying a stainless barbed adapter kit so I was able to take the quarter inch line and adapter to 3/8 to the T. Once I did that I had a working carbonator
My cost breakdown:
$28.99 for the pump
$7.99 for 3/8" barb NTP connection into the T (x2).
$19.99 for the stainless T with carb stone.
$9.80 for Ball lock connectors to the keg.
$10.99 for the the hose barb reducing kit.
$11.99 for the 12 volt power supply
~$4 for clamps and end for the ball lock connectors
.
Sometimes I need something quicker than that and so I made this quick carbonation unit based off of the idea of the Blickman Engineering quick carb.
The Blickman unit cost ~$200 plus tax and shipping or get it at your local brew shop if they have it. This cost me a little under $105 to make; The Blickman would have certainly been easier to do as it's complete, but this was less expensive and I don't mind the hobby aspect of doing it myself.
The quick carbonation is simply a self priming pump that feeds into a stainless steel T that has Barbed fittings to accept hoses with clamps. One input of the stainless T has a .5 Micron Carbonation stone that feeds from your CO2 tank.
You run the pump, it sucks the liquid out of the keg through the T, across the Stone, and back into the keg. The CO2 tank is pushing through the .5 Micron stone which carbonates the liquid on the way back out to the keg.
It takes about 45 minutes to get the liquid mostly carbonated where you want it and another 15 minutes or so will have it pretty much about where you need it. You can really see the bubbles going back into the keg until it starts to equalize and then the two lines look the same. Depending on the carbonation level, my experience shows you need to let it sit for several hours afterwards to let the foam settle down.
In my first go-round, I had a pump that was a little too strong and it would push liquid into the line of the CO2 and to get around that you really had to crank up the CO2 to bypass the pressure caused by the pump. This caused leaks. My original pump was rated at 4 L a minute. I replaced it with a pump rated at 2L a minute and that fixed that issue.
My next issue was the stainless steel T came with hose barbs that were sized for half inch tubing. I wanted 3/8, so I needed to buy some separate 3/8 hose barb 1/2" NPT to go into the stainless T.
The next issue I had was that the smaller pump needed quarter inch lines connecting to it instead of 3/8". I could not find a pump that had outlets for 3/8. That led me to buying a stainless barbed adapter kit so I was able to take the quarter inch line and adapter to 3/8 to the T. Once I did that I had a working carbonator
My cost breakdown:
$28.99 for the pump
$7.99 for 3/8" barb NTP connection into the T (x2).
$19.99 for the stainless T with carb stone.
$9.80 for Ball lock connectors to the keg.
$10.99 for the the hose barb reducing kit.
$11.99 for the 12 volt power supply
~$4 for clamps and end for the ball lock connectors
.
Last edited:
